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I just recently bought
a schlefflera. It is approx 3ft tall and green
and yellowish,the leaves are falling off.What
would be causing this?

Often times
when plants are first brought home, they go through
a period of shock and re-adjustment. When plants
are coming from a greenhouse, they are accustomed
to growing in optimum conditions (optimum light
levels, humidity, temperature, etc.). When plants
are moved into a home environment, they are exposed
to different conditions than they were used to
growing in. It often takes time for a plant to
adjust to a new environment, but once it adjusts,
symptoms such as losing leaves should go away.

Another possibility is that your schlefflera
may have an insect
pest, such as scale, which would be visible
as flattened brown spots on the leaves, accompanied
by a clear sticky substance. You may also want
to check for insect pests as well.

I have two nice healthy plants, one
Dieffenbachia an done Peace Plant. They are indoors,
but I wonder if I can put them outside for the
summer?

Your Dieffenbachia
and Peace
Lily would probably benefit from being placed
outdoors during the summer months. Just be sure
to place them in a shaded location, as they will
not be able to take direct sunlight. For more
detailed information on summering houseplants
outdoors, you may want to take a look at our article
on summering
houseplants outdoors.

I have a stalk of a dumb cane plant. It has no
leaves or roots and I'm trying to get it to grow
roots. What should I do?

If your Dumb
Cane has no leaves or roots, I cannot guarantee
that it will grow, but it is worth a try at least.
One easy way to grow roots is to place the stalk
in water, and just let it sit. It should develop
roots over time. Another option is to purchase
what is called "rooting hormone". You
should be able to find this at most garden centers
or plant departments. It is usually available
in either a powder or gel form. You just need
to apply rooting hormone to your cutting. Then
you can place the cutting in soil. You can also
place the cutting and its pot inside a plastic
bag, as that will help to raise the humidity and
help the cutting to root better. Just be sure
to give it some air from time to time.

I have a yellow mushroom like fungus
growing in several of my houseplants. I scrape
them out and they have a root base attatched to
them. Are these fungi's poisonous and how do I
get rid of them?

Unfortunately
I am not sure if the fungus you described is poisonous
or not. Scraping the fungus out of the soil is
one option. But if that does not work, you may
need to remove as much of the soil as possible
and re-pot the plant into fresh soil. The spores
may have been present in the soil to begin with.
In addition, warm, moist soil can sometimes promote
fungus growth, so make sure that the soil does
not stay excessivly moist.

I have a Ponytail Palm, for some reason
it got given to much water. The soil was wet and
the leaves of the Palm have turned brown and are
falling off. Is there any way in which i can bring
him back to life. Can you cut the Palm to generate
new growth. Please help the Palm is very important
as it was a present from someone special.

I am sorry
to hear about your pony-tail
palm. As long as your plant's roots were not
completely rotten, your plant should be able to
recover with a little care, although it may take
some time. You could start by withholding water
until the soil completely dries out. If there
is a location where you plant may dry out quicker
(such as a sunnier, or warmer location) you could
try moving your plant there.

While your plant is recovering, you should cut
back on watering, and withhold fertilizer (fertilizer
can burn newly emerging roots).

My lucky bamboo is "planted"
in water and has been doing quite well until recently.
I've noticed striations in the stems...almost
as if they're drying out and the leaves are starting
to turn yellow. I'm continuing to get new growth,
and even some new shoots, but the yellow leaves
concern me.
Do you know what it could be?

If your lucky
bamboo is continuing to produce new growths,
that is a good sign. Sometimes lucky bamboo can
be affected by water quality, so sometimes it
helps to replace the plant's water with fresh
water every so often (about every 1-2 weeks).
Another thing you could do would be to add 1-2
drops of liquid fertilizer on occassion. This
would help if your plant is getting yellow leaves
as a result of nutrient defiency.

Can you take clippings from any house
plant and start new ones? If so, ware should I
clip at?

Most (but not
all) houseplants can be propagated by stem cuttings
or leaf cuttings. To find out which type of propagation
method works best for a particular type of plant,
you can check the houseplant
directory.

For stem cuttings, it's often best to take a
cutting that is a few inches long, and it's often
best to cut above the leaf node (where the leaves
grow on the stem). After you take your cutting,
you can remove some of the bottom-most leaves
of the cutting, and then you can either place
the cutting in water until the roots develop,
or else you can sprinkle rooting hormone on the
end of the cutting, and place it directly in soil.

My poor little aloe plant needs some
help and I don't know what to believe.One day
I noticed its older, larger leaves were browning
at the tip and eventually shriveling up flat and
curling until there was no life left in them,
like they were dry and juiceless. I decided to
replant it into a slightly larger pot as it was
top heavy (the pot was only the next step up in
size) when I discovered the reason it was top
heavy was it had no roots, just a ball kind of
like an onion. My plant which once had 9 beautiful
leaves now has 6 and only 3 are older, bigger
leaves. None of the current leaves have dried
out and curled but some have gotten brown tips
and most feel mushy soft instead of firm, and
the heaier ones have even got creases like a fold
in them from hanging down. Unfortunatly my research
has found the symptoms of over watering and underwatering
almost the same and I don't know how to tell which
one it is. Since I started my research on what
could be wrong with my poor aloe I read that they
like the sun and I had decided to place it in
a different window in the house hoping to help
it recooperate. the window only recieves sunlight
around 5:00 pm when the sun is setting. After
the second day in the window I noticed my poor
aloe plants large leaves had turned a brownish
green, not dried but just turned more of an olive
color. After reading more it sounded like it had
recieved overly large amounts of sunlight. I know
my plant has lived in artificial light but shouldn't
it be able to handle an hour (max) of sunlight
in a window or does the color change have to with
something else? Please help me identify the problems
with my plant before it withers away more, all
the info out there is confusing me.

It sounds like
your aloe is suffering from rot. It is possible
that the rot could have developed from a combination
of slight overwatering, which may have been worstened
by the plant being in low light and in a larger
container. Wilting can be a sign of both over
and under watering, which can be confusing. Wilting
and brown tips in general are caused by lack of
water reaching the leaves. Sometimes if the roots
are badly rotten and damaged, they cannot function
properly and cannot take up any water. So the
plant will show the same symptoms as if it hadn't
been watered at all.

Moving the plant to higher light is a start.
The plant may be showing signs of sunburn because
moving from low to high light might have been
a shock to it, and this could have been exaggerated
due to the plant's stressed condition. Although
as your plant should eventually become adjusted
to the higher light. Another thing that you could
do would be to re-pot the plant into a smaller
container (if most of its roots have rotted away).
You should look for a pot that's just big enough
for the plants roots, and then fill around it
with fresh potting soil. You could also try brushing
on some rooting hormone to encourage new root
development, and then watering the plant less
frequently.

I have a dumb cane diffenbachia,that
I have let get over-grown.It stands over 12 feet
tall.I really don't want to lose the plant.My
question is how do I re-pot the plant,I know there
are several different methods,I'm just not sure
how.I really need some advice.

To re-pot your
dieffenbachia,
first check to see if it is root-bound. You should
then choose a container approximately 1-2 inches
larger than the one your plant is currently in.
You should fill potting soil on the bottom of
the new pot until your plant's root ball is level
to the top of its new container. You can then
fill in around the sides of the rootball with
new potting soil. A more detailed re-potting
tutorial is available.

Hi , I would like to know what proper
car should a Portulacaria Afra receive , because
mine is dropping leaves frequently , I dont water
it oftenly when its not hot , but it get no sunlight.
Thanks

Yor Portulacaria
afra (commonly known as elephant bush) is a succulent,
so it should be kept on the dry side. It prefers
high light, so it would probably do best in a
sunnier location, or under artificial lights.
I would try placing your plant in higher light.
Perhaps that would help to remedy the dropping
leaves.

My Norfolk Island Pine has reached
the ceiling and still has new growth. Can I prune
it from the top? Or do I have to find it a new
home with higher ceilings? I hate to give it up!

Congratulations
on growing such a large, healthy norfolk island
pine. I would not want to give up such a wonderful
plant either. You should be able to prune the
plant from the top to keep it from outgrowing
your ceiling. Just prune off what you think is
necessary to maintain the plant's shape, and to
keep it within the height needed.

I have a Jade tree that my Nana gave
me for my 21st birthday. But I was unaware that
the Jade tree was a member of the cacti family.
I have had it for about 2 years now and it has
steadily been dropping small branches. But it
continued to grow smaller ones so I didn't think
anything was out of the ordinary. But just recently
a very larg branch fell off and another one is
indager of doing the same. The main trunk of the
tree is a littel soft as well. I talked to my
Nana and she told me I was over watering it and
that the inside had turned to mush. I replanted
it in some dry soil and have not touched it since.
This was about 2 weeks ago. It doesn't look like
it's doing much better. Is there anything else
I can do? Maybe something that neither my Nana
or myself knows about? Please help me....I cannot
stand the thought of that gorgeous tree dying
due to my ignorance.

I am very sorry
to hear about your jade plant. I understand the
sentimental value in a plant such as yours. Jade
plants are unfortunately very easy to over-water
(I have done this myself too so don't feel bad).
I think you are off to a good start by re-potting
the plant in fresh soil, and letting it dry out.
You might also want to try applying a product
such as Physan20, which is a fungicide/bactericide.
Jade plants can be easily propagated by stem cuttings,
so in the worse case scenerio, you could cut off
unaffected parts of the plant, root them in water,
and then repot them into new soil to form a new
plant, that way your plant would still live on.

I bought an Easter cactus during the
Easter holiday because of its beautiful and bright
pink blooms. For a couple of weeks thereafter,
everything bloomed and the plant was gorgeous
to look at. Then all of a sudden, all the blooms
shriveled up. I don't think it was due to overwatering
because I live in SF and we had a spell of wet
weather which I thought would take care of its
needs. What do I need to do to bring this plant
back to its former health and beauty?

It sounds like
you are taking good care of your Easter
Cactus for it to be blooming. Often times,
bud blast can be caused by a sudden change in
a plants environment. For instance, maybe your
plant experienced a sudden chill, or else maybe
it experienced a change in light, watering, or
humidity. It sounds like you cut back on watering
during the wet weather, which is a really good
practice. But maybe the plant became too dry,
which could have caused the bud blast.

If your Easter
cactus is blooming then it sounds like you are
taking good care of it. I would say continue what
you are doing, and the plant should be fine. If
you haven't already done so, you may want to fertilize
it a little during the summer. Then once it gets
closer to blooming time, just make sure the plant
is exposed to the environmental cues that it needs,
such as lengthening days, and cool nights.

Heartleaf
philodendron and pothos
are often confused as one another. They can be
difficult to tell apart, as they are both vines,
and both have similar heart-shaped leaves. One
way to tell the difference when looking at the
leaves is that pothos leaves are usually longer,
and shinnier and glossy. Also, the edges of poths
tend to fold up, whereas the leaves of heartlead
philodendron are usually flatter.

Although there are rare variegated forms of heartleaf
philodendron, usually you will only see the pure
green form, whereas the most commonly seen pothos
are golden pothos (with yellow variegation, or
marble queen pothos (with white variegation).

My jade is dying, why? I transplanted
it when I brought it home, one pot seems to be
doing fine the other is all soft and mushy. Have
had jade plants in the past with no peoblems.

Were both of your jades
transplanted under the same conditions (for example,
are they both the same size, and were they transplanted
into the same size pots)? Also, are they being
treated to the same conditions?

Jades do like to be kept on the dry side, and
can develop rot if they are kept too wet (either
from getting too much water or being in a pot
that's too large). I am wondering, could the pot
that it was transplanted to be too big for it?

Is there anything I can do about
the plants (Asparagus Fern),as far as when its
stems/leaves grow to big for a certain housing?
I am interested in trimming if down a little can
this be done?

If your plant (Asparagus
Fern) has gotten too large, one thing that
can be done is to divide the plant. For this,
basically you would unpot the plant and then divide
it into smaller sections, keeping the roots of
each section as intact as possible. This would
also enable you to propagate your plant into more
plants for yourself or others.

If it is a specific frond that has grown too
big, you could trim it off at the base as well.

Some of my Devil's Ivy plant has gone
wilted. What is the possible problem that causes
it. Pls assist. Thank you.

In most cases, wilting is
usually caused by the plant (Devil's
Ivy)not getting enough water. This can be
caused by one of two things a.) Either the plant
dried out too much and did not get enough water
or b.) The plant cannot take up water through
its roots because they are rotting (usually caused
by overwatering).

I know it is confusing that two different things
like under and overwatering can cause the same
symptoms. My guess would be that the plant may
not be getting enough water. I would say check
the soil and see if it feels really dry. Even
if the plant is being watered frequently enough,
lack of water could also be caused by things like
the plant being too rootbound, or if the water
is running down the sides of the pot rather than
sinking into the soil.